Michael R. Ash is the author of Shaken Faith Syndrome: Strengthening One’s Testimony in the Face of Criticism and Doubt, Of Faith Reason: 80 Evidences Supporting the Prophet Joseph Smith, as well as Bamboozled by the “CES Letter.” A former columnist for the Deseret News’ Mormon Times, he has also been a frequent contributor to the online blogs, Meridian Magazine, as well as the Mormon Hub. Mike has been published in the Ensign, Sunstone Magazine, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, in the FARMS Review, and most recently contributed a chapter to Kofford Book’s Perspectives in Mormon Theology: Apologetics. Joining FairMormon in the year 2000, Mike delivered a paper at the 2nd annual FairMormon conference and has contributed papers to seven additional conferences (including this one) since. Mike and his wife Chris live in Ogden and are the parents of three daughters and the grandparents of six grandchildren.

What is Proof Texting?

LDS MissionCast is an independently produced podcast shared by FairMormon. The Host and Presenters speak independently of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and FairMormon. LDS MissionCast a podcast to educate and inspire in the great cause of Missionary Work. This episode is hosted by Nick Galieti.

Ben Spackman is an interesting type of scholar. He spent some time teaching at BYU, but has since continued his formal education towards his PH.d. His educational background is so varied that I am not sure there is anyone who has repeated his same course of study. As a result I find his insights to be good food for thought. His area of expertise deals a lot with ancient scripture. Sometimes we don’t spend much time as missionaries considering the role of ancient scripture in our lives, but we don’t always know what the Bible means or how the Bible is used in other faith traditions. I am sure we can all admit that there are good and bad ways to use the Bible in missionary work. Ben Spackman helps us to not only help us learn how to use the Bible better in our own lives, but how to understand its use by other religions, so that we might be able to better build bridges of understanding between different faiths.

When we use scriptures to teach the gospel, we sometimes get confused when others don’t see the Bible the same way that we do as Latter-day Saints. Missionaries tend to follow the practice of proof texting (or prooftexting) which does very little to help teach people the true gospel of Jesus Christ. So, again, Brother Spackman is here to help us know how to better use the Bible as a teaching tool in missionary work.

Neal Rappleye is the Research Project Manager at Book of Mormon Central and has published on the Book of Mormon in Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture. He has presented at the 2014, 2016, and 2017 Book of Mormon Conferences.

On this episode Kelsey Edwards and Nick Galieti sit down with BYU scholar and professor, Anthony Sweat who wrote a book called The Holy Invitation, published by Deseret Book. This is book and this interview are focused on those going to the temple for the first time prior to their mission, or even those that have gone but are looking to get more out of the experience. This is a great opportunity for missionaries preparing to leave, those on a mission, or even those that are coming home from a mission and looking to get more from their temple experience. Anthony Sweat has some great insights to share on this subject.

This week we are showcasing the music of Sara Lyn Baril. Her music can be found at http://saralynbaril.com Her music is definitely fitting for a missionary friendly music library, which means its also great for music to listen to on the sabbath day or any time you want to feel the peace and contentment of gospel music.

Sara Lyn Baril – LDS Musician featured in this episode.

Some thoughts on Sacred Silence with the temple by Nick Galieti (host)

I went back to my journals to see back to my first temple experience on October 11th, 1997, the day before I received my mission call to Baton Rouge, LA. It would appear that two things were at play that informed the journal entry for that day, my obsession with girls and getting a girlfriend, so much so that I didn’t really offer much reflection at all on the mission call itself (yeah, really classy – don’t do what I did), and the fact that I was taught that we aren’t supposed to talk about the temple outside of the temple, so I never wrote anything about the experience, who was there, nothing.

In this episode, we touched on the idea of “sacred silence” in our interview. Its an obviously sensitive subject. There are sacred experiences that we should honor in that spirit. But what are those lines that we shouldn’t cross? I want to forward my own thoughts on this matter in hopes that it can help promote the spirit of the temple as well as help us to understand that the answer is far more ambiguous than we might originally think.

In the episode, I agreed with Anthony Sweat that there is a maximal point where all people engaged in living the covenants of the temple have explicitly agreed to not disclose certain parts of the temple endowment ritual. However, while there are those things that are specifically mentioned there, parts that need to remain sacred, it doesn’t mean that the rest of it remains public domain either. As in all gospel principles, but especially teachings of the temple are best understood line upon line, precept upon precept.

This means that what we talk about with respect to the temple should be viewed in light of who we are speaking with, not just what is “approved” according to covenant. It is common and expected that Missionaries will talk about the plan of salvation when speaking with those being taught about the restored gospel. However, it is doubtful that the best course of action is to discuss the content of the drama depicted in the temples as part of the endowment ritual. Then again, it might be. The spirit should be the guide in these matters.

Remember, it’s not that we hide it, at least no more than God has withheld many truths until we are in a position to best endure the experience that comes with tutoring from the spirit. In speaking of the temple and the sacred truths taught therein, much of what is taught is through the spirit to each individual because that is what that individual is prepared for and ready to learn. Without authorization from the spirit to share such things, it is best to treat such things as valuable for the person receiving it, and not necessarily relevant to the rest of the world.

Temple theologians talk about the temple as being sacred space, in sacred time. They also speak of the nature of temple ritual and learning as being something that should not be made profane. Meaning, something relating or devoted to that which is not sacred or biblical; secular rather than religious. The origin of that word profane, from which we get the word profanity, actually originally meant “outside the temple, or not sacred.” (Side note: To speak profanity isn’t just using certain words that are socially considered vulgar, but to speak in any manner that is unholy.)

In order to keep the temple from becoming secular, something all too common, or profane, it is best to remember that while some of what is taught in the temple is not “off limits” to discuss conceptually and principally, or even out-of-bounds according to covenant in the temple itself, we should be careful to not make profane what is taught and what is learned as it remains in the domain of the sacred and spiritual. Sometimes what we learn in the temple is best understood in the temple context, and outside of that it looses its meaning, especially to someone other than yourself.

So, when you go to the temple for the first time, or when you go to the temple in subsequent visits, don’t be afraid to record those sacred experiences in your personal journal, but seek divine approval for what is appropriate to share and with what audience when it comes to speaking of such sacred things.

Matthew L. Bowen is an assistant professor of Religious Education at Brigham Young University–Hawaii where he has taught since 2012. He holds a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, where he also earned an M.A (Biblical Studies). He previously earned a B.A. in English with a minor in Classical Studies (Greek emphasis) from Brigham Young University (Provo) and subsequently pursued post-Baccalaureate studies in Semitic languages, Egyptian, and Latin there. In addition to having taught at Brigham Young University–Hawaii, he has previously taught at the Catholic University of America and at Brigham Young University. Bowen is the author of numerous peer-reviewed articles on scripture- and temple-related topics and two forthcoming books on scriptural onomastics. Bowen grew up in Orem, Utah, and served a two-year mission in the California Roseville Mission. He and his wife, the former Suzanne Blattberg, are the parents of three children, Zachariah, Nathan, and Adele.

Welcome to the LDS MissionCast. To those of you who are new listeners to our show, thank you for listening. We hope you enjoy what this podcast has to offer as education and inspiration for missionary work in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Each week we try to bring you interviews that can help you to be a better missionary, or to help you feel inspired in missionary work. This week features an interview with Dusty Smith. While that may not be a name you immediately recognize, this is a story you won’t want to miss. This story is filled with the hand of God, and is an amazing, extraordinary example of how simple acts of missionary work can have a profound impact on literally hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world.

Occasionally we have Shawn Rapier from the always entertaining, Latter-day Lives podcast who records a special side interview with his guests about their mission experiences, or missionary-related experiences that can make you laugh, feel nostalgic for your own mission, or just leave you feeling inspired. This week Shawn had on artist Ryan Snarr, who tells a story about the enduring relationships that can be created from serving a mission, and how rich and fulfilling those relationships can be as they extend beyond the years of missionary service.

Each episode we try to feature different music or different LDS Musicians. This week we are showcasing a website and service called Music For Missionaries.net. Heather Bosshardt arranges and performs some great arrangements of the hymns. She sends you firesides in your inbox each and every week. It is FREE to missionaries while they are on their missions. This is music and spiritual messages that are sent to you each week that you can use for your own inspiration or you can share it with those being taught, or wards where you serve. Check out, www.musicformissionaries.net

Janiece Johnson is a transplanted Bay Area, California, native who loves history, design, art, good food, and traveling. She has master’s degrees in American Religious History and Theology from Brigham Young University and Vanderbilt’s Divinity School respectively. She finished her doctoral work at the University of Leicester in England. Janiece has published work on gender and American religious history—specializing in Mormon history and the prosecution for the Mountain Meadows Massacre. She is a co-author of The Witness of Women: First-hand Experiences and Testimonies of the Restoration (Deseret Book, 2016) and general editor of the recently published Mountain Meadows Massacre: Collected Legal Papers (University of Oklahoma Press, 2017). A visiting professor in Religious Education at BYU-Idaho for the last three years, Janiece will begin as a research fellow for the Maxwell Institute’s Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies at BYU this fall.

BYU professor of church history Casey Paul Griffiths discusses the 100 most important events in Latter-day Saint history at his Education Week class.

Welcome to a select episode of the LDS MissionCast right here on FairMormon. This episode is hosted by Nick Galieti. The guest on this podcast is Casey Griffiths a professor from BYU, and one of the contributing authors to the book, What You Don’t Know about the 100 Most Important Events in Church History. We discuss the importance of knowing the history of the church and how our unique history can be used as a proselyting tool.

After that interview we have a funny segment from Shawn Rapier from the Latter-day Lives podcast. Shawn interviews a hilarious comedian, Steve Soelberg, who tells a funny story from his mission when he was…shall we say, caught in an awkward moment.

Music for this episode comes from Anne Britt. You can find her beautiful piano arrangements and this music on her site, http://annebrittmusic.com.

Gerrit J. Dirkmaat is an assistant professor of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University. He received his PhD in American History from the University of Colorado in 2010 where he studied nineteenth-century American expansionism and foreign relations. His dissertation was titled “Enemies Foreign and Domestic: US Relations with Mormons in the US Empire in North America, 1844–1854.” He worked as a historian and writer for the Church History Department from 2010 to 2014 as historian on several volumes of the Joseph Smith Papers project. Since taking his position at BYU, he continues to work on the Joseph Smith Papers as a historian and writer. He currently serves as Editor of the academic journal Mormon Historical Studies, published by the Mormon Historic Sites Foundation, and on the Church History editorial board for BYU Studies. He is the author of dozens of scholarly articles and is the co-author, along with Michael Hubbard MacKay, of the book From Darkness Unto Light: Joseph Smith’s Translation and Publication of the Book of Mormon, published by Religious Studies Center at Brigham Young University and Deseret Book, 2015. He and his wife Angela have four children.

Russell Stevenson – Author of “For The Cause of Righteousness: A Global History of Blacks and Mormonism, 1830-2013

The LDS MissionCast is a podcast designed to educate and inspire in the great cause of Missionary Work. This episode is all about Race and the LDS Church. Some of the episodes of the LDS MissionCast feature content for those preparing to serve a full-time mission, some episodes are directed towards those that have returned home, or are wanting to be more inspired in member-missionary work. Episodes like this one are unique in that we occasionally need to take the time to learn the gospel, to learn our history better, so that we can better members of the church, and better ministers to those around us.

On June 1st, 2018 there will be a celebration in the conference center in Salt Lake City, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 1978 revelation on the Priesthood, or Official Declaration #2. This topic is often referred to as being the “Priesthood Ban.” In an effort to explain or even justify this policy, it is common for members of the church to say things about this issue that are either wrong, possibly hurtful, incorrect, you name it. So we will spend some time in this episode learning the history, and coming to some understanding of this often controversial topic.

The scholar for this episode, Russell Stevenson, has dedicated years of his life to the study and understanding of the issues surrounding Race and the LDS Church. He talks about how his mission experience inspired this work, and informs much of what he does in his academic studies.